The Grenada gazette. (Grenada, Miss.) 1885-18??, 1887-01-22
FAC ABOUT COFFEE,
consumption Of the Delicious Beverage In
the Leading Countries OF the World.

ursI caHe INTO pubic notice III the tif-
teenth century. The earliest accounts
of its use are by Arabian writer's of that
period. In the city of Alden it became
in the latter part of that century a very
popular drink, first with lawyers and
other studious persons whose occupa-
tons made wakefalness desirable, and
soon after with all classes. From here its
use extended gradually to the cities on
the eastern shores of the Mediterranean.
and thence into Europe. 1t was
publicly sold in Constantinoplc in 1854.
and reached Venice, the great trade
mart of Europe, in 1915. Burton, in
his ANATOMY of Melancholy Cl621),
is supposed to be the first European
writer to mention it. ''Thc Turks" he
says, shave a drink called coffee (for
they use no wine), so named
OF a berry as black as SCOT
and as bitter, which they sip up as
warm as they can suffer, because they
find by experience that that kind of
drink SO used hclpcth digestion and
p%rocureth alacrity.' The first coffee
house was opened in London in 1862 by
the Greek servant Of a Turkish mer-
chant, a Jew by the name of Jacob hay
ing opened one IN Oxford the year pre-
vious. By the end of the century the
English consumption of coffee reached
n hundred tons. The first ~cultiva-
ton of coffee began in the province of
Yemen, Arabia, from which the little
real Mocha coffee that finds its way to
market at the present day is derived.
The Dutch transplanted it from Arabia to
Java about 1880, from which its culture
soon extended through the entire East
Indies. 1t was from some plants sent
from Java to Amsterdam about 17l2
that the seed was procured from which
the entire West Indian and South
American product, which now amounts
to four-fifths of all the coffee grown in
the world, originated.
The tinest-flayorcd coffee is un-
doubleday the Mocha, grown in Yemen,
Arabia. The Mocha berry is small,
round and of Il dark-brown color. the
richness of the color arising from It's
being allowed to remain on the trees
until SC ripe that it can be shaken of.
There is very little, if any. Of this
delicious coffee that ever reaches the
English OF American markets, the en-
tire crop of Yemen being consumed
east and southwark of ConStantinople.
The ordinary Mocha coffee Of commerce
is the selected berries of the Java and
Brazil product, which resemble the
Mocha in size and shape, the higher
price which it commands paying for
the trouble of picking it out from the
mass of ordinary berries. In flavor it
is really no better than the ordinary
cof1ees from which it is selected. Java
coffee stands next on the list in point of
flavor. and, as the Java product is con
siderable. and the size and color of the
berries show a marked difference from
the American %eoffoos, there is no great
danger of an ordinary good Judge of
coffee being cheated in this article.
The berry is larger than that of the
American coifees and of color varying
from pale yellow to brown, while the
smaller berry of the Rio coffee has a
blush or gray tingc. The Java coffee
is chiefly exported to Holland and the
United States, England drawing its
supplies from Ceylon and Brazil prin-
cipally.
Although coffee is widely distributed
and its use common in all civilized
countries, the extent to which it is con-
sumed varies greatly. The total pro-
duptlun Uf coffee for tho ycnr 1885 was
estimated by reliable authorities at
1,645, 760,0 900 pounds, or a tritlc over
n pound per capita for the entire
population of the world. In China
and Japan. where tea is the common
beverage, the use is practically IN
known, and ii is probable that among
the millions constituting the population
of European and Asiatic Russia the
consumption is merely nominal. The
same may be said of Equatorial and
Southern Africa, whore the plant orig
mated, and where it now grows in its {
wild state, the natives neither knowing '
nor caring any thing about its deli i
cious qualities. This practically con- i
fines its general use to Eastern and :
Southern Europe, Egypt. Arabia, Per- t
STA. Asia Minor, India and America. |
The per capita consumption of Holland |
is the highest of any country, being p
pounds. Denmark and Belgium fol- S
low next in order with 1Sl pounds.
The United States comes third in
the list with n per capita con-
sumption of g.! for 1885. and a steady e
increase Of about 5 per cent. annually. Fl
Germany comes next in order. closely c
r - L., T -. ~. ~ ,